Oct. 24, 2006
Katherine Trinidad
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-3749
James Hartsfield
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
MEDIA ADVISORY: M06-168
NASA ROBOTICS OPERATOR DISCUSSES ROLE ON NEXT SHUTTLE FLIGHT
NASA astronaut Nick Patrick, who will operate the space shuttle's
robotic arm during a mission targeted to launch in December, will be
available for interviews by satellite from 7 to 8:45 a.m. EDT Friday,
Oct. 27.
To participate, media should contact NASA's Johnson Space Center
newsroom in Houston at 281-483-5111 by 5 p.m. EDT Thursday, Oct. 26.
A citizen of both Britain and the United States, Patrick considers
London and Rye, N.Y., his hometowns. He will be making his first
spaceflight on Discovery during mission STS-116. The mission will
deliver a small section of the station's girder-like truss and rewire
the complex to bring electricity on line from solar arrays delivered
in September.
Patrick has bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of
Cambridge, England, and a master's and doctorate from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
Patrick was selected as an astronaut in 1998. Aboard Discovery,
Patrick will use the shuttle's robotic arm to lift the new truss
segment from the cargo bay for installation. Among other tasks, he
will also use the arm to inspect the shuttle's heat shield.
He will be joined aboard Discovery by STS-116 Commander Mark Polansky,
Pilot Bill Oefelein and mission specialists Joan Higginbotham, Suni
Williams and Christer Fuglesang, a European Space Agency astronaut.
Williams will remain aboard the station for six months. European
Space Agency astronaut Thomas Reiter, currently aboard the station,
will return to Earth on Discovery.
For Patrick’s biographical information, visit:
http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/patrick.html
Patrick’s interviews will be carried live on the NASA TV analog
satellite AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude; transponder 5C, 3800
MHz, vertical polarization, with audio at 6.8 MHz. B-roll video of
his training for the mission will air at 6:30 a.m. EDT on Oct. 27.
For NASA TV downlink, schedules and streaming video information,
visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/ntv
For more information about STS-116 and its crew, visit:
http://www.nasa.gov/shuttle
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